Application of the result based monitoring and evaluation system by development organizations in North Rift Region of Kenya

Abstract

Background: Today, many development organizations are using Result Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBME) system to showcase their impact in peoples’ lives. The RBME is a systematic and structured procedure on reporting organization’s performance. This study sought to determine the RBME system application by development organizations. Specifically, the study evaluated the design of RBME system, established the level of RBME application and described the factors associated with the RBME system application by the development organizations. Methods: This was a cross sectional study. The data was collected from 263 project staff from 25 organizations using a self-administered questionnaire between January to March 2013. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics that included percentage, frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation. A Chi square test (X2) of independence was used as inferential statistics at significant level of 0.05. Results and discussion: The findings showed that majority (93%) of project staff in 25 development organizations confirmed that RBME system was designed and were applying it in reporting impact. Many organisations had ensured that the requirements of the RBME system at the project design stage were adhered to. This is attributed to stringent funding conditions of the donors to development organisations. The project staff rated an average of 71% ± 12% as a level at which RBME system was applied in development organizations. This showed that the development organisations appreciated importance of the RBME system in reporting changes made in the target beneficiaries. The major factors that significantly associated with the application of the RBME system were management support (p = 0.032), budget allocation (p =0.000), staff capacity (p = 0.000), baseline survey (p = 0.000) and stakeholders participation (p = 0.000). These factors were significant because they are the preconditions for any organisations to effectively design and apply RBME system. Conclusion and recommendations: All the development organizations were using the RBME system at different levels to report impact being made in the target beneficiaries. This was mainly due to different factors associated to the application of RBME system. These factors included management support, financial resources, staff capacity and stakeholders’ participation. It was recommended that the development organizations should allocate more financial resources to monitoring and evaluation activities, establish monitoring and evaluation office and consider monthly reporting as ideal periodic reporting of the impact.